Having grown up in New Orleans, I know a lot about gumbo. When I go to a gumbo cook-off, I’m opinionated about what I like best. I can easily discern when a roux was rushed (yikes...not brown enough!), or when the okra wasn’t oven-baked ahead of time to dry it a bit. I get a little peeved when somebody puts okra in a sausage and chicken gumbo. (No, that’s not how my mom made it. Not at all.) I recognize all the nuances of gumbo, all the possible combinations. I’m sort of a gumbo foodie.

What I don’t “get,” however, is chili.

I have had it many times, but it always tastes about the same. From a can, it is bland and greasy. When my mother made it, it was more like a “cajun” chili, served, of course, over a heaping helping of white rice. Aside from my mother’s rice modification - and perhaps the topping of pasta with chili - as you’d get in Cincinnati - I can’t even imagine how chili could have enough variations to make it in the least bit interesting.

When I said all this to Martha Patterson, she just laughed, as if I didn’t know what the heck I was talking about.

Patterson, along with her husband, Pat Patterson, and friend, Eddie Williams, are coordinating the Abita River Chili Cook-off. Scheduled to be held for the fifth time this year, Patterson and her fellow organizers are not affiliated with a business, government agency, or charity; they, quite simply, just wanted to hold a cook-off.

“We usually have between 17 and 21 teams...in 2011, we had close to a thousand people who came through,” explained Patterson, to illustrate that there’s a strong interest in chili even here in gumbo country.

According to Patterson, there will be music by a DJ, plus craft and food vendors. Teams are still being registered up until the day before, and everyone will be happy to know that it only costs $5 to get a “bottomless” sampling of chili made by the competitors.

“We have a money prize for first, second and third place for the chilis,” said Patterson. “Then we have a People’s Choice award, where we hand out a ticket to people who come through the door, and they’ll pick which chili they like the best...there’s a Showmanship award, for whoever decorates their booth the best to who comes in costume; whoever really just goes all out.”

Patterson says there will be judges who know quite a bit more about chili tasting than do “chili newbies” such as myself.

“We do have judges,” said Patterson. “A couple of years ago they were chefs from restaurants in New Orleans. This year Camellia beans is one of our sponsors, and they’re going to have a representative there, and she’ll be a judge. We’ll probably have a panel of six or seven judges, and it is a blind tasting.”

Patterson says proceeds from the cook-off will be donated to the Abita Springs Park.

The Abita River Chili Cook-off will take place on Nov. 9 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Abita Springs Park, located at 22049 Main Street in Abita Springs. For more information on entering a team in the Cook-off, visit the website abitariverchilicookoff.com.

I look forward to being there to taste the variations. Who knows? By the end of the day I may end up a “chili foodie” after all.